Fiction Reviews
The Staircase in the Woods
(2025) Chuck Wendig, Del Rey, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-10106-5
It is difficult to think of the Horror genre these days without thinking of the behemoth Stephen King and the shadow his brand of the genre has over the whole genre. His work is so intertwined with people’s perceptions of what is Horror that it can be difficult to see anything else without comparison.
Which leads me in a roundabout way to this, Chuck Wendig’s The Staircase in the Woods. The Stephen King vibes are strong with this one – and that may be a good thing!
As often happens in real life, five friends since school – Owen Zuikas, Nick Lobell, Hamish Moore, Lauren “Lore” Banks, and Matthew “Matty” Shiffman – have all gone their own separate ways as adults. However, when twenty years later one of them, Nick, contacts them all to say that that he has terminal pancreatic cancer, the remainder agree to all meet up for one last time, where Nick now lives in New Hampshire. The plot becomes deeper when we find out that main characters made a pact in their earlier lives – the Covenant – because one of them disappeared. It is this pact that draws them all back together to a place and a past they thought they’d left behind.
The vibes from Stephen King’s It were strong throughout. This is one that definitely has that Americana vibe of small-town America that King does so well. I did find the characters rather clichéd, but then that may be the point. Part of this sort of book’s appeal is that the characters are archetypal, that you can recognise them, engage with them, like or dislike them and to a degree understand them. It therefore does go without really saying that, as is normal for such a book, there’s a bit of seΧ, lots of swearing, some quite graphic scenes described and difficult memories to confront.
When they meet Nick, they are taken on a walk in the woods, where they find a staircase that seemingly leads to nowhere. This staircase somehow takes them to another place, a house that is more than a house, a place that exposes them all to their fears and dark memories they thought they’d left behind.
Much of the book focuses on how the characters got to this point, on how the Covenant was formed and the lives of the characters before as well as what happened to the one that disappeared. The result of this is that there’s lots of tough and difficult elements uncovered, including physical, seΧual and emotional abuse, which could make it a hard read for some.
Wendig writes well, knowing when to hold back the jump scares and the frights, and when to give you the horrific details. It can shock, but in the end also reminds us of what should be most important to us – the significance of friendship and loyalty, especially when things are difficult.
In short, The Staircase in the Woods is a solid enough horror story with a lot of elements regular horror readers will appreciate, competently written. One for those waiting for the next Stephen King to come out, I think.
Mark Yon
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